Classic Wet Flies

Wet flies have been around as long as fly fishing itself. Are they starting to see a renaissance? In fly tying circles at least, that may be the case, as tyers look for new challenges and new sources of inspiritaion.

This article has been brewing for quite some time. One of the first fly tying books I ever got was Mike Dawe's "The Flytiers Manual". I think I got it for Christmas one year from my Mom. I was a little disappointed at first because it was UK based and seemed "different". The more I read it, however, the more I learned to appreciate that difference. Not only that, I kept going back to the chapter on wet flies. They were fascinating - and quite beautiful. They were unlike anything that was "in vogue" at the time in US based magazines and books. My interest in wet flies has been on a slow simmer ever since.

This past Fall and Winter, the simmer came to a full boil. It started with a visit to the International Fly Tying Symposium, where I watched Don Bastian tie for awhile and then sat in on his slide show. Granted, a gifted and experienced tyer like Don always makes fly tying seem incredibly easy, but I couldn't shake the "I can do that" feeling that was coming over me. I'd wrapped my share of thread, paid enough dues. It was time to scratch an itch. The first thing I did was dig out my 1965 edition of Bergman's "Trout", which was handed down to me from my father.

When I was browsing through the plates by Dr. Burke and picking out flies to tie, I tried to choose that that had a variety of wing styles. Some married, some duck flank, some solid "slate" as they call the natural duck and goose wing quills, some mottled, and some solid colors. I looked for a variety of colors schemes, some bright attractors as well as some flies sporting more subdued natural tones. I wanted a few with palmered hackles as well as a few with mixed hackles. Some classics are sprinkled in, but for the most part, many of these flies are not well known.

I must say, tying the sets of flies was great fun. I tied three of each, which filled a single row in an old Perrine #60 fly box. Due to the size of the hook, I had to skip rows, so I could fit 5 rows of three flies on each side of the box. Since I had two boxes, I had a total of 20 patterns to tie. I listed the patterns on a sheet of paper and sat down and tied. By New Year's, I was done.

Since Wet Flies seem to be coming back in fashion somewhat, I thought I'd share them with GFF readers.

Ed: This article has been updated with flies tied during the Christmas holiday season of 2005. The new set starts with the "Beauty".

Abbey

Finding mallard flank to make a nice slip wing is difficult. You need to use those "side" feathers that are essentially one sided, with the good side having solid web all the way to the tips of the barbs. I sorted through a lot of flank to find a few feathers to use on these flies.

Black and Orange

This was supposed to be a Lord Baltimore, until I realized I forgot the jungle cock eye. As luck would have it, there was also a fly named the Black and Orange that match this recipe perfectly. Lucky me. Since my dyed black goose was more of a dark blue, I used natural crow quill for the wing. Looks nice.

Blue Bottle

I never noticed this fly until I saw it on the cover of Don Bastian's DVD. It caught my eye and I thought I'd try my hand at a few. It's a real handsome pattern. I'm a sucker for flies with palmered hackles.

Catskill

When choose flies to tie from the book, I could not pass up a fly known as "Catskill", especially since it contains one of my favorite materials - lemon woodduck flank. Palmered hackle? Man - nice fly.

Last Chance

I was surprised to find quite a few of the wet flies in Bergman's book sport some sort of floss or thread ribbing. I used Danville 3/0 to rib this fella, which is tied on a size 8 Mustad 3399 hook. Any heavier thread or floss would dominate the body too much.

Parmachene Belle

One of the most famous of all the "Bergman" wet flies. The Parmachene Belle is named after Parmachene Lake in Maine, USA. The first time I ever saw a real one was when a friend in Nova Scotia sent me some in a swap, telling me how he used them when fishing for sea run brookies. How cool is that?

Royal Coachman

One of the most famous flies of all time, whether the upwing dry fly, or the quill winged wet fly as shown here. This combination of materials has been used in a million different ways to catch all sorts of fish. A true timeless classic.

Silver Doctor

I can hear you now. "Silver Doctor? You kidding me? This does not match the recipe in Bergman's book." You're right. It doesn't. The recipe for this fly came from Mike Dawe's "Flytier's Companion", which is UK based. I loved the combination of colors and the mallard flank sides. Forgive me, Ray.

Tomah Joe

A real pretty fly. Nice combination of colors and materials. The wing can be made with either matching left/right slips of barred woodduck, or taking one wider slip and folding it lengthwise (the British method). By the way - this is a real fish catcher.

Trout Fin

Knowing that brook trout were quite territorial, old timers would often clip the fin off a caught fish and use it for bait. Fly fishers imitated this behavior by creating several "trout fin" type flies, this being one of the popular variations.

Who turned the color off? Talk about a black-and-white fly, with a little silver and gray to mix things up a bit. Drab - but fishy, isn't it? I was looking for patterns that had Guinea wings, and this is one of the first I found.

Blae and Black

A not-quite-as-well-known fly from the UK, where "blae" refers to various shades of gray (like dun, slate, etc.). Quite a few of the patterns from the UK use GP tippet tails. I try to keep mine sparse and make sure both bands are showing, but keeping the separation between bands significant.

Butcher

Everyone knows about this fly. The theory is that the silver is the butcher's blade, the red is the blood from the meat, and the irridescent blue is his apron. Whatever. It's a great fly. The original called for Ibis for the tail, but I use just a few whisps of hackle.

Dark Montreal

Who could not like this fly? What a great combination of colors. Gold and claret/magenta with a mottled wing. A real beauty. It's easy to see why this has caught so many fishermen's attention over the years. This one was tied with chicken wing quills like the flies above. Amazing, eh?

Probably the single most famous fly of all. I am a bit embarrassed to admit I've embellished the traditional dressing a bit by adding the bronze mallard tail and using holographic gold tinsel for a tag and a rib. I can't help it. That holo gold is a fish magnet.

Greenwell's Glory

The UK's version of an Adams. Everyone ties and fishes the Greenwell's Glory in an almost infinite number of varieties. This particular one was intended to be close to the original dressing, including the dark waxed primrose body and the narrower-than-usual Starling slip wing.

Light Caddis

Another one from Helen's book. It makes a good match with the Hardy's Favorite. I used to tie this one with a wing tied "Hughes" style with a bunch of dark dun hen saddle fibers. The quill wing looks much nicer.

Mallard and Claret

Obviously, I am struggling with my bronze mallard wings. This fly is fishable, but it will not win any beauty contests. I almost chose not to include it here, but it's such a good fly. It's very popular in the UK and has spawned countless variations on the "mallard and claret" theme.

Governor

One I had never heard of prior to getting a copy of Helen's book. One day I was in the mood for some herl bodied wet flies, and this one caught my eye. Again - hen here instead of turkey (I know - I'm being redundant - but I don't want to be called out on the mat by the internet fly tying police.)

Teal, Blue, and Silver

Another very well known fly - although probably more so for sea trout than for trout fishing. I have done very well with this fly, however, fishing it during the height of the season with all sorts of little fry are about.

Whickham's Fancy

I wish I had done something different with the first turn of hackle, as the overall effect of the palmer makes the fly look butt heavy. Still - this will be a fish catcher. Gold tinsel, brown rib - what's not to like? This will catch fish - and in fact has caught fish for far longer than I have been fishing.

Lovely flies! You possess a masters level of fly tying skill. I've been fly fishing for 55 years and ironically have caught less than ten trout on wet flies. They are very pretty and I think I'll tie some to put into my fly box.

Some excellent work. These classic patterns have a singular attribute - they look "fishy."
Along with that, they are simply beautiful. Their sweeping curves, vibrant color and intriguing names take us back to that grand and ealier time we too often care nothing about. So few know these flies were the genesis, the foundation upon which our sport was built.
It is encouraging to find them making a comeback.

when putting the body hackle for a wickham,s fancy,next time,try using a saddle hackhle with the flue NO longer than the gape of the hook,and STRIP the flue from one side of the hackle.this will make a more sparsley hackled body. wind fine gold wire over the hackle to protect from breaking due to fish teeth abrading it.this is a really great fly when bounced on the surface of a 3 fly "cast of flies as the top dropper. it works well any where on the leader.

Beautiful photos of classic wet flies, along with the recipes using legally available, modern-day feathers. "Trout" by Ray Bergman = best fly fishing literature that I've ever read (and I've read a lot of it). A huge measure of "Thanks!" to Mr. Bergman for permanently morphing my fly fishing "bug" (at age 8) into my permanent fly fishing habit at the age of 12, back in the mid-1960's when I first read "Trout", cover to cover. The Wet Fly Plates in "Trout" are works of art. And for dry flies??? Mr. William Blades had no superior. He was amazing.

I have become a fan of the classic wet patterns, and have begun to tie some. Until reading your comments with each pattern describing how this or that catches fish, I was tying for display only. Having tied more than one of each pattern, I'm going to try them out on North Carolina mountain trout. Thanks for the great photos and encouraging remarks.

I too am a big fan of Bergmans, Trout.and also like to tie and fish those old traditional wet fly ties. Some of those flies are such fish catchers, especially the version of the hares ear wet with the slate wings. early in the year you can tie it on and just leave it there until you need another. My compliments to your tying skill, I very much enjoyed the pictures. Just got done tying myh firs tomah joes. Im glad I finally found a use for the feathers I dont use on the wood duck as I dont tie salmpn flies.Keep up the good work Stan fron Ct.

Forty years ago the oldtimers in the Harman, WV area used three wets at a time on short leaders. Favorites were gray hackle peacock, gray hackle yellow, queen of the waters, cowdung, and hare's ear. My dad's was the royal coachman and mine, the coachman which I've taken browns of three pounds on.

I have had many wonderful evenings fishing for lake rainbow trout using squirrel tail blue dun wets and catching fish after fish as people just shook their heads wondering what "magic fly" I was using. These patterns are very much overlooked these days I think.. and the photography is pure 'eye candy." wonderful plates. thanks.. I was looking for Wickhams Fancy and there it was..

As for bronze mallard winging, I've never managed to match opposing slips. I've reasoned that there is insufficient barbing on the fibres to prevent splaying when locked with thread. One technique, and the only alternative I know of, is to trim a slip 3 times the size of the desired width of wing and "fold" or "roll" each end inwards. The resulting laminate of 3 slips can be manipulated between the fingers to shape the final wing profile.

This will give a fairly solid profile to the wing, but the fineness of the mallard fibres will allow sufficient movement to suggest life in the water. Definitely not as delicate as your work in these pages but who knows, with your skill at the vice, you might take "folding" or "rolling" to a new level.

Great site. Beautiful flies! I sell guinea feathers through a farmers' cooperative . May I use the pictures of your Guinea Hen and Beauty flies in my coop ad and blog for our farm? I will give you credit and link to this page. Thank you for your time and consideration.

used the Butcher (also known as the Bloody Butcher) to great effect in Fife, Scotland as a lad, coached by my sage Uncle Bertie who could talk to the fish !!!! Got some fine fish from the Frandy and other lochs. River Devon was a great source of scrappy little fighters, all released as gently as possible.

Just checked in on this page again and am surprised at the the interest. I thought I was one of the few that was interested in the wet fly style of fishing and tying.

A suggestion; pick any one of the patterns and do a "step by step" tying photo and instruction like the "Tabou Caddis Emerger". I think this would be beneficial to the tyers that are interested in tying this type of fly. As you well know there are several nuances in the tying procedure.

Dr Petti,
Excellent work. I always say, "the classics are classics because they work." I've been out of things for a while but am coming back to the land of the living and this page of traditional wet flies for trout is inspiring eye candy......

Don Bastian shows a "Good Evening" tied for his article back in 2006 in Fly Tyer. I finally got around to taking the wings of a mallard drake this season and tied the fly but reached a quandry when placing the slips together. Normally, the slips are matched dull side out, I thought, so the wings curve out slightly. But on this fly, one would lose the beautiful purple speculum if tied this way; so I tied the fly dull side in. This part of the wing is pretty flat any way, so one would not get much curvature however tied. Does anyone know how this fly was tied originally?

excellent site.i have been looking for good classic wets to tie. found everything i needed on your site. i am interested in all the old classics from trout flies to salmon flies. i am tying some of them now to see how they work on trout here in nova scotia. keep up the good work and i hope you add more to your site, just can't get enough of them. thanks for sharing these with all of us

...was only eight years old when brother (four years older) and I dug frozen chickens - "plymouth rock" out of the snow; cut bristles off of Dad's paint brush and crudely attached them to a worm hook. A lifetime hobby began. Dad always fished wets - always three - two droppers and a point and any other way was treason. Beautiful page, wonderful photography and comments. Thank you so much!

Excellently tied trout flies on this page. Very good photographs.
I have an old 'John Veniard' book which has some of these flies in, they are tied with the same materials here, apart from the 'Catskill', Veniard uses Brown Mallard shoulder feather for the wings and tail.. There are other dressings like Adirondack, Cupsuptic, Potomac, Rio Grande King, Utah, Ray Bergman and Montreal Silver in the book too.

Super flies! I live in a resort in Florida where the streets are named for trout & salmon flies. iI would like to find someone who would tye SIX of the patterns for me. CATSKILL,GRAY HACKLE, NIGHT OWL, PARSON TOM, PINK LADY, WOODRUFF.
I need a dozen of each to maKe a frame to give as gifts, If you know of someone please advise. THANKS BOB

As a keen flytier myself , I always think that when exposing both bars on pheasent tippets tails that the tail looks too long , but as I can see you compensate the body length which tends to bring the tail further down the shank and makes it look more acceptable , I also like your skills when combining three different wing slips as one , trully impressed and overall they are dressed very neat and tidy ......jim

Thanks for wonderful flies that have some of the neatest symmetrical head wraps I've seen. this is the page that inspired me to start a Soft hackled or Winged wet fly swap in my favorite online forum. OzarkAnglers.com

I just finished reading The Soft-Hackled Fly and Tiny Soft Hackles by Sylvester Nemes which inspired me to surch on line for more articles about wet flies.
Thanks for the article and pictures, my next move is to the bench!

Neat stuff Bob; I love to fish with the wet fly. I am 72 & fished the same water as Ray B. & Dr. burke, Both of which were from New Jersey , as I am too. The water they fished , is on the south branch of the Raritan , near a town called Long valley, DR. Burke lived in a town called Bound Brook N.J. I really like your style of tying. Great photos FRED

very nice work. living in the Rangeley, Maine area one has the opportunity to fly cast on some historical waters and see many flies from the world over. "Classic wet flies" have never been absent from my fly boxes in 37 years of fly casting. Some of these patterns reside there now and by the looks some additional patterns will soon take up residence!!!!! We all owe a debt of gratitude to the Ray Bergmans of the world. Best wishes for fly casting.

Fantastic job on these wet flies!...I especially liked the Greenwell's Glory as I have been trying to tie one for a friend...with limited success I might add...the Dark Montreal is very effective on brook trout in Nova Scotia...thank you for sharing your expertise and the "commentary"....

Soft hackles are probably the most effective flies there is. I have caught more difficult fish on soft hackled wet flies than any other . It is the most under rated flies in the world. You can fish them upstream dry fly with a bit of floatant and it looks like a seriously trapped crippled emerger/dry. Fish them as a unweighted nymph dead drift down stream. Czech nymph with them. Across and down on the surface as a egg laying caddis. Or sub-surface in the traditional North Country style, it will catch fish every way. There is no other fly that is this versatile.

I love traditional wet flies as well as soft hackles.
I am a beginner and have a beginner's question: will they catch fish, though? I mean, in places like the Housatonic, the Farmington, the Beaverkill and the Willowemoc, and as opposed to nymphs like the Pheasant tail? Perhaps it's just comparing apples and oranges.
Whatever the answer, THANK YOU once again for sharing your work with us - such beautiful creations! (I must get the Bastien DVD!)

If only there was enough time left in life to do what we would like to do. I feel that my daughters will inherit my stack of flytying materials. I find that I tie flies only to replace those left in trees and fish. Such is life!

Really, beautifully tied fishing flies and superbly photographed. Nice story too.
Traditional wet flies (and their modern derivations) for sea-run brown trout and salmon. They are the most interesting and are unsurpassable catchers of wild salmonids.
I wish that you would tie some traditional Irish and Scottish wet patterns, such as the Green Peter, Kate McClaren and Kingsmill Moore's bumble series - the Golden Olive, Fiery Brown and Claret Bumble.
Traditional flies with well-picked out seal's fur bodies and palmered body hackles are far superior to the smooth body/slip wing paterns. Particularly the bumbles, with two contrasting body hackles, will provide you with superb photo models and not a few fish. Keep your work up!

Lovely pictures. Nice to see my all time favourite wets here...
Teal, blue and silver...Telephone box...Fish hawk.
I am having great results using them in Denmark for sea trout. The good ole' English way...uhh?
Ripley Davenport

I met Don Bastian for the first time last winter at the Fly Show in College Park, Maryland. I found out that he is friends with our good buddy Large Mike Martinek. Don's booth was the first one on the left as I walked in. I stopped for a quick chat and spent an hour (at least) watching him tie. I realized that I could spend the rest of the day at his booth so I pulled away so I could see the show. Upon leaving several hours later I made the mistake of stopping by his bench again. Yes. Another hour. And like you, I went home with new confidence and started tying wets. What a great inspiration he was. I asked him way too many question and he answered every one. He gave me lots and lots of wonderful tips on many aspects of tying.

You might want to look at Don Bastian's DVD on tying these wonderful flies. Also, there is now at least one discussion board on the web (not allowed to give you a link, you'll have to find it yourself, maybe by googling the names of some classic wet flies) where many of us afficianados of the classic wets hang out and show some patterns and discuss ideas. I'm a great fan of GFF as well, and love many of the patterns and articles. The one on Mary Orivs Marbury flies and the stuff on classic streamers come to mind as examples of great GFF stuff.

I love all the wet fly talk in this article. I tie alot of classic wet flies, including many of these patterns and let me make one suggestion. DO NOT hesitate to use these during the season. If you think they are fun to tie, wait 'til a nice trout or bass rolls on your wet fly at the end of a swing!

Thank you , for a look at flies from the past, now i am doing them and enjoying to tie them very much, i have the veniards book and there's a bunch of flies calling to be tied.I always found it difficult for the wings but the more i tie the more i like to tie them. Is there threads that tie feather wings better
Thanks

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